Axel once more felt himself drifting back into consciousness. But instead of Yuffie's harsh wakeup call, this time it was from a different voice. A rather… goofy sounding voice.

Axel opened his eyes and nearly fell over from shock to see dog-like face just inches away from his own.

"G'mornin' Axel!" Goofy said cheerfully.

Axel moved away and blinked in confusion. "Huh… what?" He turned to see Riku standing nearby, as well as Yuffie.

"Sorry Axel." Yuffie chuckled. "We didn't mean to scare you."

"Sleep well?" Riku asked.

"Yeah…" Axel replied. "But what're you two doing here?"

"We were here with Sora Kairi and Donald," Goofy explained. "But Riku decided to visit Yuffie, and I tagged along."

"Oh, I see." Axel unfolded his coat and put it on, not liking anybody seeing him without it for some reason. "Well, see I walked Yuffie home last night, and she offered to let me-"

Riku just nodded. "We know, Yuffie explained it already. No need to be embarrassed Axel."

"I wasn't embarrassed, but fine." Axel tugged his coat into place, slightly annoyed at what Riku implied. But then, he was kinda worried people might get the wrong idea.

"C'mon you guys, let's get going." Yuffie said as she pulled on her shoes. "Sora and the others are probably waiting. You wanna come with us Axel?"

Axel had hoped to hang out with Yuffie more, but Riku and Goofy showing up put a dent in that plan. "Nah, I was gonna head over to Twilight Town, bug Roxas a little. I'll see ya around."

"Okay, bye Axel!" Axel turned and disappeared through a dark portal, as Yuffie, Riku and Goofy walked out the door.

---

Axel reappeared in Twilight Town, glad to be away from the scene he had just endured. That Riku, he just got under Axel's skin sometimes. Not that he disliked Riku… he thought Riku was pretty cool. It was just when Riku was around Yuffie that he didn't seem to get along with him. Kinda like how he felt uneasy around Leon, only to a lesser degree. He also felt that way with Goofy, but with him it barely registered on his radar. But put those two next to Yuffie first thing when he wakes up after a night fraught with thoughts of Yuffie's feelings for Leon? That was just too much.

But why? He wondered, as he wondered the streets. Why should I care? I guess I'm just being protective of her again.

Axel turned a corner and soon found the Usual Spot. Walking in, he was greeted by Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

"Hey Axel, what's up?" Said Pence, as he ate some sea-salt ice-cream.

"Ah, nothing much." Axel replied. "Got any ice-cream for me?" Olette nodded and handed him a bar. "Thanks. I was trying to find Roxas, any of you seen him around?"

"We haven't seen him today." Hayner replied. "He's probably off making out with Naminé again." The three all sighed at once.

Axel laughed. "Yeah? In that case, I think I know where to look. Thanks guys!"

Axel walked out as the others said goodbye and he headed for the clock tower.

---

Once Axel had arrived at the clock tower, he sure enough found Roxas and Naminé. Thankfully, they weren't making out-- now anyway –and were just looking out over the city.

Axel smiled slightly. It never failed to amaze him just how happy he could be for his friend. He walked up and Roxas and Naminé turned to him with a smile.

"Hey Axel," Said Roxas. "Didn't know you were coming."

"Pleasant surprises happen all the time." He replied with a smirk, as he took a seat next to his blond friend. "Hayner told me you'd be up here making out."

"Oh… he did?" Naminé said with a blush.

Roxas blushed too, but just sighed. "Remind me to hurt Hayner."

Axel laughed. "Okay, sure thing. But I'll still be here to make fun of ya Roxas, so that really won't help." Roxas sighed in defeat and hung his head. "Ah cheer up. I'll lay off. Especially since Naminé's involved."

"So what brings you here?" Naminé asked. "I thought you'd be in Radiant Garden awhile longer."

"I woulda been… except I got bored. Decided to come hang with my favorite couple awhile."

"Hmm…" Roxas rubbed his chin suspiciously. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Yuffie, would it?"

"Wha- what?" Axel nearly fell over. "What are you talking about?"

"You spent an awful lot of time with her last night. Not to mention, Sora just called over the inter-world communicator and said that you spent the night at her house."

Axel blushed now, and Naminé couldn't help but giggle.

"Ya know Roxas," Axel said softly. "Idle gossiping has a way of coming back to bite you in the end. Yuffie just gave me a place to stay because I've got nowhere else."

"I've offered to let you stay at my house," Roxas continued. "But you always turn me down."

"That's different, you're my best friend. I can turn you down and you're like 'okay, whatever.' But with Yuffie… ah I couldn't turn her down."

"Because you like her." Roxas and Axel both turned with a start to face Naminé. "Well, you do, don't you? You get along so well, I'm sure you must like her a little."

"Well…" Axel scratched his head nervously. "Yeah, kinda."

Naminé smiled. "Well then, don't worry what others say. Just be content to be her friend, no matter what others think."

Axel smiled and nodded. "…Thanks Nami." He walked away and waved back to his two friends. "See ya, I've gotta run."

Roxas and Naminé waved back, and then Axel disappeared through a dark portal.

---

Yuffie sighed heavily as she sat eating her ice-cream. So far, her fun day with Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald and Goofy had been undermined by her persisting depression. How could she have not told him?

She sighed again as Riku and Donald fought over the last bar of ice-cream Scrooge had in his freezer, Goofy looked on in horror, and Sora and Kairi just stood hand-in-hand, smiling.

Aww, I want that! She whined internally. To stand hand-in-hand with someone who loves me… what a dream come true. Yuffie reeled at the un-ninja-like thoughts she was having and shook her head.

Still… that is what she wanted. To be with a guy, hold his hand, gaze at his green eyes… Wait, she thought suddenly. Does Squall have green eyes?

Sighing yet again, she threw away her ice-cream stick, minus the ice-cream now, and walked over to Sora and Kairi. "Thanks for letting me tag along, but I think I'll be going now." She said.

"Okay." Sora replied. "See you around Yuffie."

"Bye guys. Oh, tell Riku and Goofy I said bye too, kay? Wouldn't want them thinking I ditched them or something."

"Alright." Kairi replied with a giggle. "Take care Yuffie.

Yuffie smiled and skipped away.

Riku walked over, triumphantly licking his ice-cream, while Donald fumed.

"Where's Yuffie?" He asked.

"She had to go." Kairi answered. "She said to say bye for her to you and Goofy. Don't exactly know why tho… do you?"

Riku and Goofy just shrugged. Donald huffed and crossed his arms. "Clueless…"

---

Yuffie wandered the streets aimlessly till she noticed Aerith picking some flowers.

Talk about your déjà vu… She thought as she approached her friend.

"Hi Yuffie," Aerith greeted cheerfully. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing much…" Yuffie replied. "I was just in the neighborhood. How about you?"

"Just picking some flowers. I really missed the flowers when we first returned here, but now they're growing again. I think I'll start a garden in my back yard. I can't wait to show everyone!"

"Like… Cloud?"

Aerith stopped for a moment, but smiled. "Yes, like Cloud. I'm sure he would love to see it… and Tifa too."

Yuffie frowned. "Aerith… why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You always put others before yourself, even when it comes to your feelings. We all know you love Cloud. We saw the way you smiled when he first came back to us… but ever since Tifa returned you've been putting yourself second."

"I can't help it. Sure, I love Cloud… with all my heart… but Tifa loves him too. And he probably loves her in return."

"Come on Aerith… Tifa's great and all… but she's not the one he'd searched for all that time, is she?"

Aerith smiled sadly. "No… maybe not." She perked up and placed her flowers in a basket. "Anyway, we don't really know when Cloud will be back, do we? So let's just drop the subject for now."

Yuffie smiled and nodded understandingly.

She understood what Aerith was going through. Loving someone, but not knowing if they felt the same… Yuffie knew if it hadn't been for Axel acting as her safety valve, she would have exploded from the stress by now. Must not have been too fun for him though.

Yuffie sighed deeply again, but this time just smiled. Axel wouldn't have to be her safety valve any longer. She was going to march up to Squall and come right out with it.

"I've gotta go find Squa- uh, Leon." She said, turning to head the other way. "Bye Aerith!"

"Bye Yuffie!" Aerith called back. She smiled and turned to head home with her flowers. But suddenly she saw a dark portal appear and Axel step out of it.

"Hey Aerith." He said.

"Hi Axel," She replied. "Nice to see you."

"You too. Is Yuffie around?"

"Yeah, she went that way. She said she had to find Leon and ran off."

"She said what? Oh brother, I've got a bad feeling about this. I'd better go find her." Axel ran passed Aerith to look for Yuffie. "Thanks Aerith, see ya!"

Aerith just shook her head, knowing full well what was going through Axel's mind but wondering if he knew. "Clueless…"

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Yup, "clueless" is a word you'll hear a lot more of in this fic. Mostly caue I like it so much. Anyhow, I hope this chapter was okay, I threw in the part with Riku and Goofy, cause Riku's my third choice for who'd go with Yuffie, (first being Axel second being Leon) and I once read a fic that was YuffieGoofy, and couldn't help but like the idea. (Don't get me wrong, you're not gonna be seeing any "Yoofy" stories outta me or anything. I like it, but it's too weird to ever do anything with.

I also tried to have more interaction with the other characters, and have a little of my other favorite pairings in there. It's unusual for me to do anything soley for pairings, so I just wanted to do as much as I could.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, cause it starts to get angsty from then on.